In recent years many companies, in trading with other companies, for the transmission and receipt or interchange of business information have come to use computerized systems known as electronic data interchange or EDI systems. EDI systems enjoy the particular advantage of having an established set of standards applicable to various types of business documents. For example, in an EDI system, an invoice has a defined format and, as a result, may be rapidly transmitted between trading partners as a compact data file from the sending trading partner's computer to the receiving trading partner's computer. To create the compact data files, an EDI operator must first translate the EDI documents. The EDI document files are compact data files that the receiving trading partner receives. These compact data files are translated back into documents by the receiving trading partner.
Applications for EDI methods and systems include business activities such as purchasing, accounts payable and accounts receivable functions, banking transactions, electronic funds transfer and other document transfers. Other EDI system applications include order filling and processing between trading partners. Not only is this helpful in buying and selling goods, but also trading partners that are transportation companies may use this information to maximize the efficiency of the transportation services they provide. By using EDI systems, a trucking company, for example, may easily keep track of the origin and destination of all of its shipments throughout its service region.
The format standards for EDI documents are generally loosely written so that they can satisfy a wide variety of user needs. Thus, for example, while an EDI invoice format may have well-defined data fields, several aspects of the EDI invoice are variable. As a result, trading partners who agree to use an EDI system may agree to the format of communication between them prior to conducting a business transaction, and thereafter communication between the trading partners has the potential to occur on an almost immediate basis.
Although EDI systems represent a significant improvement in business communications between trading partners, known EDI systems stand in need of improvement in document translation efficiency. A particular problem in the translation of EDI documents is the need to assure that the documents, as they are generated from various points within a trading partner, satisfy the EDI document format EDI requirements. This is particularly important in cases where failure to satisfy applicable EDI document format requirements causes the translation to be either significantly incorrect or fully prohibited. It is, therefore, important that the sending trading partner ascertain that all documents satisfy the information and format requirements of the receiving trading partner before the trading partner sends them.
Known methods of testing EDI document translations require that when a receiving trading partner encounters a transmission error, the sending partner must identify and correct the error and, then, resend a corrected test EDI document file. This process often requires numerous iterations and creates time lapses which strain productivity. Correcting translation errors using a conventional EDI editing system has not proven practical, because any adjustment in the data link of EDI transmission requires that every character following the modification be adjusted. This results in a significant amount of tedious effort between both trading partners. This type of batch processing by the recipient is further limited, because only upon the detection of an error by the recipient can action be taken to correct the problem. Once this problem is corrected, it is necessary to completely rerun the file which may be halted again as a result of yet another error later in the EDI document file translation.
As a result, in order for EDI document transmissions to reach their full potential efficiency and speed there is a need for as a method and system for rapidly increasing the data translation rate between trading partners, it is necessary to have a rapid EDI translation test facility that does not strain the productivity of the receiving trading partner.
There is a need for a method and system that eliminates the batch processing necessary to identify errors in EDI translations.
There is yet the need for a method and system that permits EDI system operators to identify and correct EDI transmission errors without the need to begin again the EDI document file translation process.